Anker MagGo Power Bank review: Made for MagSafe

As far as gadgets go, power banks are simple enough that even budget-friendly brands get the basics right most of the time.

Anker's MagGo Power Bank doesn't deviate from those expectations, but it does show you how far even a little bit of extra effort will get you. It doesn't have the largest capacity out there nor is it the cheapest or lightest option available and it can't compete with the sheer speeds of traditional wired power banks and chargers. All the same, it's elevated by flexible form factor and full MagSafe integration. In other words, it's a standout example of a hybrid that works smarter rather than harder.

Anyone can make a power bank that's a little bit bigger. It takes a little bit more thought to create one that's more useful.

In Australia, the Anker MagGo Power Bank retails for around $129. That price point is fairly expensive when it comes to power banks with this amount of capacity, even wireless ones. Check out the table below for a round-up of deals for the Anker MagGo Power Bank.

Where many power banks opt for a form factor that's almost as slim as your smartphone, Anker's MagGo power bank is a little on the chunky side. That heavyweight feel isn't helped by the fact that it doesn't feel particularly premium. Given the price, that's a bit of a shame.

Still, the upshot here is the hardware is built with flexibility in mind. While magnetically snapping the MagGo onto the back of your iPhone or MagSafe iPhone case,

To hold and handle, the Anker MagGo power bank also doesn't feel particularly premium. That's a shame given the price, but the upside is that you do get the option of using the charger as a portable stand, which makes it a great fit for the StandBy mode introduced by the iPhone 14.

Where one edge of the Anker MagGo is host to the USB-C port that's used to charge the unit, the opposite edge features a groove that can be pulled to leverage the charging pad into an almost vertical orientation. You have a little bit of wiggle room here, with support for between 30 and 65 degrees. Regardless of what you settle on, the glossy metallic hinge here proved more than capable of holding firm (even when it came to larger devices like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra).

These qualities are complemented nicely by the set of magnets built into the charging pad. These help alleviate the usual alignment issues that come with wireless charging.

There's also a set of five LED lights. As you'd expect, these convey the remaining charge in the power bank. They're nothing special but they do the trick.

The only other detail worth touching on here is that the charging pad on the MagGo supports faster wireless charging via both MagSafe on iOS and Qi2 on compatible Android devices. At 15W, that's not quite as fast as the 20W you could get out of the 0.6-meter USB-C cable that comes bundled with the Anker MagGo but it's a significant improvement on where wireless chargers have typically capped out.

On that note, it's worth remembering that not all phones in some cases will play nice with wireless charging. If yours doesn't, then it won't work with this particular pad. This might not be a design flaw per se but it's something to keep in mind if you're sizing up something like the Anker MagGo.

While the experience of using the MagGo is as intuitive as it sounds, there are a few strings attached that aren't immediately obvious but always worth keeping in mind.

At 6600mAh, the Anker MagGo Power Bank isn't exactly going to change your life. It's not the kind of power bank that'll last you a week. At best, it'll give you an extra day of standard screen time to work with. For heavy-duty handsets like the Google Pixel 8 Pro, you're looking at doubling your battery life. If you're equipped with something more modest in spec like the standard iPhone 15, you can expect a bigger multiplier to your battery life.

That said, there are a few practical downsides worth considering. The biggest of these is the price. The Anker MagGo isn't cheap and while you don't necessarily need a MagSafe device or case to use it as a basic Qi charging pad, I wouldn't recommend doing so.

For some, this prerequisite of having to use the Anker MagGo with either a MagSafe case or device may make it even more expensive than it already is. However, without MagSafe in the mix, the experience of aligning the coils is tedious at best and frustrating at worst.

You also miss out on 15W wireless charging and being able to use the MagGo as a portable stand, since the aforementioned magnets won't have anything to attach to. As great as the hardware here is, I wouldn't rush to recommend it minus MagSafe as you're not getting any of the benefits it provides.